These 17 underrated Hindi movies has kept the spirit of cinema alive

most underrated hindi movies

Bollywood movies which will make you wonder how you missed the best written stories.

Thriller, drama, comedy, romance, action, horror, what genre is your favorite? Bollywood has a variety of movies according to your mood, taste, and even your valentine. With the release of Raja Harishchandra in 1913, Bollywood started it’s journey to entertain the audience. So far, Bollywood has entertained millions of people worldwide. Movies such as Dilwale, Gully Boy, PK, Kick, Dabangg, Dangal, etc, won crores in the box office. But on a beautiful day, we seek for something which is sensational, astonishing, and worth watching. Well, in short, if you are looking for some master pieces of Bollywood, we have a list of some most underrated and shunned Hindi movies just for you.

1. A Wednesday

The movie is starred with Hindi cinema’s some of the most versatile, prominent, and shrewd actors – Anupum Kher and Nasruddin Shah. The story revolves around an unfiled case by the Mumbai police. Anupam Kher, who played the role of retiring Commissioner of Police – Prakash Rathod, narrates the incident that happened on an odd Wednesday. Rathod gets a phone call by an unknown, who informs him that he has placed bombs in several parts of Mumbai. He demands to release four terrorists in exchange to tell the location of the bombs.

2. Jhootha hi Sahi

A cute love story with a tangy zest of bromance and friendship. Jhootha Hi Sahi will give you a reason to watch it again and enjoy the story. The movie narrates the love tale of a couple who fell in love accidentally without even seeing each other. It all started when Sid (John Abraham), whose phone number was inadvertently shared on a suicide prevention website, gets calls from an unknown numbers about suicidal threats. A few days later, he receives a call from a girl who seems severely depressed about her breakup. And from there, the story gets its ground. The movie features John Abraham, Pakhi, R. Mahadevan, Raghu Ram, Mansi Scott, George Young, Alishka Varde, and few more.

3. Newton

Newton is a dark story of the elections in Naxal-controlled towns and villages. Nutan Kumar (Rajkumar Rao), who changes his name to Newton, is sent to a Naxal-affected area in Chhattisgarh for election duty. He there tries his best to conduct the election and educate the voters about their voting rights and privileges, but he fails. The movie stars a medley of some of the aptest and knacked Bollywood actors – Sanjay Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi, and Rajkumar Rao. Newton was selected as an official entry for the Oscars and won several awards, including the International Federation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) award. And it is Bollywood’s one of the most underrated movies that people have missed.


4. Aligarh

Aligarh is based on a true and controversial event that happened in Aligarh, a city in Uttar Pradesh. The movie stars Manoj Bajpai and Rajkumar Rao along with other co-stars. Manoj Bajpai, who plays the role of Ramchandra Siras, the head of the Classical Modern Indian Languages Faculty and the professor of Marathi language at Aligarh Muslim University. He was sacked and suspended from the university after someone allegedly recorded his video while having sex with a male rickshaw-puller. He was contacted by a journalist (Rajkumar Rao) after the news gets media attention and fights for justice. The court takes the decision in favor of Siras, but the story takes an unexpected turn at the end.

5. Mom

A mother can take any step and go to any limit to save her child, and Mom’s story reflects the same bravery. Mom is a crime and rape and revenge based movie that received a good response from critics and audiences. Sridevi, who plays the role of mom, plans to murder 3 of her daughter’s classmates along with a watchman and a person who gang-raped her daughter. She successfully avenges 3 of the students and the watchman, but the fifth person turns to be a hardened criminal. The movie shows the horrifying culture and mentality of society and teenagers.

6. Talwar

Talwar is another crime based movie that narrates the real story of a suspicious double murder case of a girl and the servant. The story of the movie swings around an honor killing case. The story is about a 14 years old teenage girl who is found dead in her room. Her parents inform the police, and a crime inspector with no experience resolving any crime case handles it. The police, when starts investigating the case, they found the servant, who was suspicious of murdering the girl is dead. Talwar will definitely swirl your mind with the suspense till the end.

7. Shor in the city

Three stories and many lives go parallel here. A simple yet compelling movie that reflects the uncertainty of life is what Shor in the city about. The film shows the chaos of life in Mumbai how people fight every day.

8. Life in a metro

Life in a metro is another drama movie based on the chaos and struggle of the lives of nine people living in Mumbai. The film casts Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Sharman Joshi, Shilpa Shetty, Kangna Ranaut, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, and Shiney Ahuja. It is a mix of loved and unloved couples which, in the end, find their ways to a happy life. The movie did not do well in the theaters, but it truly is one of the most underrated Bollywood movies.

Read more: 5 Bollywood movies that redefine Women Power in India

9. Ghanchakkar

Drama, crime and comedy, Ghanchakkar is a mix of all these three. Starring Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Rajesh Sharma, and Nimit Das. Emraan Hashmi, who plays as Sanju, lives a normal life with his wife (Vidya Balan). On a typical day, he gets a call from two people who offer him a chance to rob a bank and earn ten crore ruppees. All three successfully commit the bank robbery worth 30 crore rupees, and give all money to Sanju to hide it and decide to meet three months later to divide the share. But, in an uncertain manner, Sanju loses his memory after he met with an accident and forgets where he kept the money.

10. Buddha in a traffic jam

Buddha in a traffic jam narrates the social norms of Maoism and urban-Naxalism in India. The movie exposes the nexus between NGOs, Naxal, academia, and politician. The reviewers and critics poorly criticized the film for being allegedly right-wing centric and Modi era. But we are not going there to review it; here we are only talking about the story and the screenplay. The movie casts Vikram Pandit (Arunpdoy Singh), who plays as a management student, but takes a revolutionary step after knowing about capitalism, Naxalism, and corruption in the country. He meets a professor in the university who encourages him to research about socialism and capitalism. His research then leads him contacting with other people working for the same grounds.

11. Wazir 

Wazir is an accidental Bollywood movie. It was supposed to be Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s first Hollywood movie, but in a grieving way, the producer died, and Chopra had to re-write the script with Abhijat Joshi for the Indian audience. Wazir stars Farhan Akhtar, Amitabh Bachchan, Aditi Rao Hydari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, and John Abraham. Wazir is based on terrorism and Anti-terrorism squad. Farhan Akhtar, who is playing as an Anti-Terrorism Squad officer, losses his daughter while chasing a terrorist. Neil Nitin Mukesh, who is playing as Wazir, is believed to be the mastermind behind everything. But, a USB changes the story at the end.

12. Teen

Teen is a remake of the South Korean movie Montage, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, and Padmavathi Rao. It is a suspicious drama and crime movie which revolves around an unsolved eight years old kidnapping and murder case.

13. Mukkabaaz

Mukkabaz portrays the struggles aspiring athletes face in small Indian towns. The film casts Vineet Kumar Singh as a boxer (Sharvan Singh), who helps his coach – Bhagwan Das Mishra (Jimmy Sheirgill), in household work. Frustrating with the domestic tasks, Sharvan denies his serving and asks for participation in a real tournament. He argues with Bhagwan Das and punches him on his face. In revenge, Das tries his best not to let Sharvan play in any match and attacks him with his goons. Sharvan falls in love with Das’s niece – Sunaina, who is aphonic, marries him and meets another coach who helps him pursuing his boxing career. Mukkabaaz a mix of love, drama, and social issues that raises cow vigilantism and casteism in India.

14. Saala khadoos

Saala khadoos is another boxing and sports politics based movie. It is a fictional story of a boxer (Adi Tomar) who becomes a victim of sports politics and losses his chance to be a part of the ’96 Olympics. After spending 15 years in boxing, he gets selected as a women boxing coach. But again, he becomes a victim of politics and falsely accused in harassment charges. He is later sent to Chennai to train women boxers where he finds an aggressive fish seller (Ezhil Madhi). She is the sister of a boxer who has been boxing for eight years to get a sports quota government job. Adi Tomar trains Madhi and ensures her entry to the World Boxing Championship. Things changes when her sister, in jealousy, injures her hand, and Midhi stats developing feeling for Adi.

Read more: Top 5 supporting roles of Hindi Films

15. Lakshmi (2014)

Lakshmi is a story of an innocent 14-years old girl (Lakshmi) who was kidnapped and sold to a brothel. The movie reveals the dark side of our society where young girls are forced to become a prostitute and live in slavery until their rest of life. But Lakshmi rejects to be a slave and fights for her freedom. She tries to escape and gets to a nearby police station, but the brothel owner already had a deal with the police, and they hand over Lakshmi to him. The story takes a twist when a customer turns to be a social activist.

16. NH 10

A sweet long drive of a couple turns into a nightmare after they try to intervene in a fight. NH 10 is based on honor killing and crime. Meera (Anushka Sharma) and Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam) plans a trip to celebrate Meera’s birthday and drive their car to NH 10. They stop their car for lunch at a roadside Dhaba, where a girl runs towards them and pleas for help. She and her husband, being from different caste, marries, and becomes the victim of honor killing. Arjun sees the murder and objects but is attacked by goons. Meera then plans to avenge, and as suggested by someone, she visits the sarpanch of the village. But her life is under threat when she comes to know about the Sarpanch.

17. Mere Baap Pehle Aap

We just can’t end our Bollywood movie list without mentioning a full comedy movie. Mere Baap Pehle Aap made people laugh, and it will make laugh anyone with its bizarre comedy. It is a couple of years older than the decade, but we could not stop ourselves adding this in the list. It is a story of a man who raised his two sons after his wife died. One son left home because his wife objected. The other son (Akshay Khanna) is now taking care of his father (Paresh Rawal). Paresh Rawal eventually meets his old-time love, Anuradha (Shobana), and creates a mess while finding ways to see her. Akshay Khanna, too, finds his love while trying to complete his dad’s incomplete love story.


Notify of
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments